Wisconsin: Home to the world’s most powerful AI Data Center

Microsoft is nearing completion of Fairwater, located in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, which they described in an announcement as “the world’s most powerful AI datacenter”. This $3.3 billion project covers approximately 315 acres and features three large buildings totaling around 1.2 million square feet. Construction details include 46.6 miles of deep foundation piles, 26.5 million pounds of structural steel, and over 120 miles of underground medium-voltage cables. 

The facility is designed to house hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GB200 and GB300 GPUs, aiming to deliver performance ten times greater than current top supercomputers.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, announced that the company plans to invest an additional $4 billion over the next three years in the state to develop a second AI data center of similar scale. The second facility, planned for Racine County will bring Microsoft’s total investment in this infrastructure in Wisconsin to over $7 billion.

The site in Racine County was previously considered for a proposed $10 billion Foxconn factory according to Reuters, but will now host “one massive AI supercomputer” according to the company. The goal is to accelerate breakthroughs in fields like medicine and science, building on the capabilities of these advanced AI models.

The environmental impact around such centers remains a community concern, and Microsoft says that more than 90 percent of Fairwater’s cooling needs will be managed by a state-of-the-art closed-loop liquid cooling system that recirculates coolant continuously, in order to reduce the need to use water. The additional development of a 250-megawatt solar project in Portage County, is also intended to offset renewable energy needs. The company also says it has prepaid for enhancements to local electrical infrastructure to help mitigate utility costs and ensure energy efficiency.

The project is expected to generate local employment, with over 3,000 workers including electricians, plumbers, carpenters, ironworkers, and others employed on-site daily during peak construction. Once operational, the first data center will employ approximately 500 full-time staff, with the total number expected to be around 800 across both facilities once fully operational.

Microsoft’s investment in infrastructure in Wisconsin may help position the state as a crucial hub for the future of AI. These facilities are designed to enable the training of next-generation AI models, and with the recent opening of Microsoft’s AI Co-Innovation Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the belief is that technological breakthroughs across multiple disciplines will be made in the region.